Lenovo leapfrogs Asustek, Acer in Czech Republic

TONKED BY TABLETS:The portable PC market in the nation contracted 11.3 percent in the first three months, despite impressive growth in some innovative segments

Staff writer, with CNA

China’s Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) for the first time captured the largest share of the mobile computer market in the Czech Republic in the first quarter, ending the reign of Taiwanese personal computer makers, according to data from tech-tracking firm IDC.

Lenovo held a 20.6 percent share of the Czech portable PC market during the quarter, followed by Acer Inc (宏碁) with 20.3 percent and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) with 16.9 percent, IDC said in a report published on Monday.

The portable PC market in the Eastern European country contracted 11.3 percent year-on-year to 140,300 units in the first three months, despite impressive growth in some innovative, yet minor market segments, such as thin and light Ultrabooks, and convertible notebooks, the research firm said.

Petr Svagrovsky, a senior research analyst at IDC, said that the portable PC market is being affected by steadily declining demand for previously popular netbooks.

“Innovative market segments, such as Ultrabooks and convertible notebooks, continue to flourish. In terms of units, they have not yet compensated for the decline in netbooks, but they have already done so in revenue terms,” Svagrovsky said.

“The rampant tablet market is also undermining demand for portable PCs,” he wrote in the report.

Aside from maintaining its leading position in the commercial sector, Lenovo also strengthened its consumer market presence by advertising heavily and slashing the prices of its mainstream models, IDC analysts said in a report released on June 20.

Asustek said in a June 17 shareholders’ meeting that it had revised downward its second-quarter forecasts for notebook and tablet shipments because of weaker-than-expected demand for the Windows 8 operating system.

The Taiwanese computer maker now expects its second-quarter notebook shipments to fall 10 percent from the previous quarter to about 4.23 million units, while its tablet shipments are likely drop by 10 percent to 2.7 million units.

The company had forecast in May that it expected to ship 4.8 million notebooks and 2.8 million tablets during the April-to-June period.

In comparison, Acer told a shareholders’ meeting on June 19 that it expected its PC and tablet shipments to be flat or grow by up to 5 percent sequentially in the second quarter, backed by higher demand for its tablets.

This story has been viewed 2185 times.

Comments will be moderated. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned.